Exporting racism to Japan and gaming

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Racism in Resident Evil 5, Its Reaction, and Video Games

A Brief Introduction of Racist Imagery in Japanese Pop Culture

The Japanese believe Whites are superior to all other ethnicities, including Asians (Greenwald). This is a typical sentiment that has seeped its way into various forms of popular culture, and the reason behind this surprising ideology is twofold. Studies in Japan believe the cause to be a mixture of Japanese remote location and strongly uniform political and religious doctrine (Greenwald). Rather than a result of malice or desire to oppress any particular ethnic group, scholars state that the Japanese are “insensitive toward other peoples because of centuries of homogeneous and isolated development” (Greenwald). According to University of Tokyo professor Nagayo Homma, "they have little social experience in dealing with different races" (Greenwald).  Because of their educational system, "they know about Martin Luther King and civil rights, but it's in an abstract context" as a result of their lack of internal civil right conflicts stemming from disenfranchisement from multiple ethnicities (Greenwald). Due to the isolationism and homogeneity, a person might suspect that strong ethnic pride might develop, but that outcome is absent because  “while whites generally are considered by Japanese to be advanced and "civilized," fellow Asians and others are sometimes seen as backward, even inferior” (Greenwald).

The reasoning for elevating Whites above other ethnic groups might lay in generational upbringing beginning in the 1940s. Tracing these attitudes from Japan can begin at the offset of World War II because “the first exposure to blacks came during the post-World War II occupation” (Greenwald). Japanese soldiers and civilians saw segregated army units, different housing, exclusion from certain actives that painted a picture of Whites being separate from Blacks, and certainly not equal (Greenwald).  Others picked up racial attitudes and stereotypes, such as Little Black Sambo, dolls and black mannequins with grotesquely large lips, from U.S. television, movies and books, or American acquaintances (Greenwald). It is not uncommon today for Japanese to avoid sitting next to Blacks on trains or taking the same elevator (Greenwald). Japanese popular media continued to perpetuate stereotypes like the Little Black Sambo with “television shows [featuring] “Rast Man,” “Soul Man and “Afro Man” doing blackface skits and Tinga Beauty in a gorilla make-up and a golden earring” (Greenwald).

"The Japanese," wrote Karen De Witt in the New York Times, "do have stereotypical images of black Americans, gleaned from American television and press accounts” which routinely portray “blacks are either entertainment or sports figures or slow, lazy, strong and destructive" (De Witt). If the root of this Japanese racism comes as an export from America, it is necessary to explore these exports, notably films because of the explosion of the American film industry in Japan post World War II. One seemingly innocuous image of African Americans from films that later premiered in Japan is that of the cigar chomping tough marine from James Cameron’s Aliens, a movie cited by developers as a source of inspiration with direct influences commonly found in the popular franchise Halo. In the film, this burly space marine is rarely seen without his cigar in mouth (Aliens). Also, he’s the demolition’s expert (Aliens). After its release in Japan, this image of a African American male remained, and propagated itself into numerous video games, from Team Fortress 2, the Halo series, and more. Like the Little Black Samba dolls, it is also shocking just how many have large afro hairstyles (Greenwald). The rarity of non-burly, cigar chomping, afro-sporting, African American males in video games is so prevalent, that the ability to find an image of one in a video game is a rarity, and if one is found, rest assured he’s at least a violent member in the military. But these are relatively mild caricatures compared to some of the more egregious examples found in more contemporary games.

Controversy Over Resident Evil 5 Trailer

In April of 2008, the Japanese video game studio Capcom released new footage of their upcoming game called Resident Evil 5. This title is another installment in an already popular series and a followup to the critically and commercially lauded Resident Evil 4 for the Nintendo Gamecube and Playstation 2 which was released in 2005 to little controversy. The series features a White protagonist, usually male and a police officer or military personnel, who must combat a sudden medical outbreak that has turned thousands of civilians into zombies (Resident). The protagonist must survive through the game, uncover bits and pieces of a global corporate conspiracy, and slay untold numbers of zombie civilians in his path (Resident).

N’Gai Croal, once gaming journalist for Newsweek and one of the few prominent African American video game journalists, did not like the footage he saw from Capcom on Resident Evil 5.

"It's like when you engage that kind of imagery you have to be careful with it. It would be like saying you were going to do some sort of zombie movie that appeared to be set in Europe in the 1940's with skinny, emaciated, Hasidic-looking people. If you put up that imagery people would be saying, 'Are you crazy?' Well, that's what this stuff looks like. This imagery has a history. It has a history and you can't pretend otherwise. That imagery still has a history that has to be engaged, that has to be understood. ... If you're going to engage imagery that has that potential, the onus is on the creator to be aware of that because there will be repercussions in the marketplace." (John).

These words prompted an intense internet debate regarding racism in video games, which eventually garnered enough attention to be mentioned in major newspapers like the L.A. Times and Wall Street Journal. This problem might have been avoided, N’Gai contends if there was more diversity in the creation of these Japanese games.

“I looked at the "Resident Evil 5" trailer and I was like, "Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game." Because I wonder, and I haven't sort of really dug into it that much, but I wonder what sort of advice Capcom gave them. The point isn't that you can't have black zombies. There was a lot of imagery in that trailer that dovetailed with classic racist imagery. What was not funny, but sort of interesting, was that there were so many gamers who could not at all see it. Like literally couldn't see it. So how could you have a conversation with people who don't understand what you're talking about and think that you're sort of seeing race where nothing exists?” (John).

Reaction to the Controversy

Within hours of Croal’s denouncement of the Resident Evil 5 trailer, on the popular message board NeoGAF, a veteran hotspot for news, gossip, discussion, that also has great influence on the industry, people were similarly scathing at even the discussion of this issue (N’Gai). Because the message board is moderated by a few users to ban members who spout racist and sexist remarks, pointed personal remarks against Croal were somewhat tempered, but despite the moderation, users expressed outrage and vitriolic anger (N’Gai). A few choice selections on the issue are:

“People need to give this shit a rest.” - ∀ Narayan

“Hopefully they don't alter the game because of some uptight whiny bitches.” - jett

“This is probably the fucking crappiest piece of bullshit I've read in months.” - Anasui Kishibe

However, the outrage was not just contained on message boards and general website commentators.  A featured community writer, Matthew Orona, for the video game website Bitmob wrote that he was “tired of hearing about racism” (Orona). To him and others, Croal’s comments was nothing more than “playing the race card” against video games and attracting unnecessary negative attention on the medium (Orona). He contends that “[g]iven the United States’ history, racism is understandably a very sensitive subject” but stipulates that "the need for some people to point out racism where it simply does not exist” is unfair (Orona). He ends his editorial by stating that the Irish and Scots have suffered more under the system of slavery (Orona).

Yet, it is important to note that not all reaction was negative. Stephen Totillo at MTV commented reviewed the racist imagery of the trailer with trepidation by remarking “when I see a town of what looks like impoverished African villagers -- the very image of global poverty, the very spectacle that since my youth thats been coded in me to evoke sympathy and charity -- I don't want to pull the trigger” (Totillo). The context, not the graphic violence, to Totillo is important since “[s]hooting zombies is something I can get behind, just as I can support video game fantasies of shooting Nazis or even causing mayhem in a big city” (Totillo). Totillo believes that ultimately the Resident Evil series “games are supposed to be about hiding from and shooting zombies”, but because of the racist imagery of the trailer, “[i]t looks like it's an advertisement to virtually shoot poor people” (Totillo).

The controversy caused enough of a sensation to be picked up and broadcasted on traditional mainstream news outlets. Variety ran articles about the controversy as did the L.A. Times, which began its article with the sensational starter of “a white man strides into an African village. The black villagers start morphing into crazed zombies, wielding pitchforks and knives. The white man starts shooting them down” (Pham). Eventually, Capcom would be forced to lighten the skin tones of some of the characters on screen, and even go so far as to replace them with White characters, despite publicly claiming initially that the reaction to the trailer would not influence development of the game in any way (Pham).

However, this did not silence critics. Several video game commentators felt that this solution of replacing villagers was “missing the point”. On their podcast discussing the review of the game, members of the popular website Giantbomb laughed at the entire issue (Davis):

Vinny Caravella: “How is it?”

Brad Shoemaker: “It’s pretty good.”

Jeff Gertsman: “Did you play co-op (cooperatively) with the rest of your klan?”

[laughter]

Ryan Davis: “Yeah, I don’t want to talk about racism in Resident Evil  5...”

Vinny Caravella: “Because there is none.”

The members went on to discuss the controversy surrounding the game, including the decision to “backpedal by inserting different ethnicities into the game” (Davis). The defense that the reviewer, Brad Shoemaker, gave and the rest of the people  agreed upon was given in an article in the New York Times stating that “because everyone is susceptible to becoming a zombie,” the issue of racism is unfounded (Davis):

Ryan Davis: “The Spaniards have been zombies, plenty of Americans  have  been zombies...”

Jeff Gertsman: “All zombies are created equal.”

However, Vinny Caravella brought the issue back to the original charge that the imagery in the game is considered racist or draws on parallels of racist ideology. One such example is that the virus in the game is supposed to make its infected “de-evolve” to a primordial state. As a result, the Africans in the game reverted to what the designers of the game considered to be the African primordial state, that of an almost nude male holding a spear while wearing a grass skirt.

General Racist Influences in Philosophy and Film

This misconception of backwardness and primitiveness can be traced to religious and philosophical examination of Africans in general (Mbiti 10). European scholars, through a Western heliocentric perspective, viewed African religion as a simple, primordial run of religion on an evolutionary ladder (Mbiti 10). Africans would exist in a stage where their religious beliefs would be viewed as “polytheistic”, and not yet matured to the “superior” form of monotheism (Mbiti 10). Africans, according to some scholars, had many gods that existed in all forms of life, from rocks to trees to animals to humans (Mbiti 10).

This notion, however, was incorrect and Africans, much like the Europeans, believed in a centralized concept of God (Mbiti 34). To the Africans, God existed beyond any concrete definitions of time and space, and was the creator of all (Mbiti 34). God was omniscient and all-seeing. However, one of the central differences was the pervasiveness of religion in the life of Africans (Mbiti 35). For Africans, religion and spirituality is inseparatable from daily life. It is in this aspect that Europeans misinformed values became to being. What European scholars saw as worshiping of inanimate objects and many gods, Africans regarded as carrying their religious beliefs into their work and everyday life (Mbiti 35).

African Americans in film are often caricatured and stereotyped even when not maliciously intended. One of the most notorious examples is Imitation of Life, a 1934 film based on the novel by Fannie Hurst and nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Picture (it lost to It Happened One Night). Here is a film that tries earnestly to address the concept of race and its impact on society, but falls to the trappings of many race films before it.

The film’s African American characters remain stereotypes. The young woman, Peola, is a “tragic mulatto,” who is ashamed of her mixed blood and tries repeatedly to pass herself off as white (Stahl). She is in a constant state of disconnection from society because of her lighter complexion. The mother of Peola, Delilah, embodies the caricature of the “mammy” (Stahl). Delilah is overtly religious, overweight, and full of unembridled optimism in the face of any adversity (Stahl). Without any want, she aids her white female friend in making millions, and always remains a lower-income woman (Stahl). Delilah exists only to serve whites, not to be seen, and ask nothing in return (Stahl). She is a gross envisioning of the ideal Black person and presented as the model of behavior to solve racial issues. The tragedy is that people may view this film and regard it as not racist, and then take much of it as dogmatic fact.

While Imitation of Life existed prior to World War II and the birth of nearly all Japanese video game designers, the movie was a popular commercial and critical hit. The film influenced those who saw it, who might have been the same people who sparked racial insensitivity in Japan post World War II, as well as other films that eventually crossed the Pacific.

Madworld, Heavy Rain, and Other Brief Examples People Agree On

The vast outcry against Croal and his comments regarding the Resident Evil 5 trailer does not suggest that in all cases counts of perceived racism in video games are dismissed. In the same episode of the podcast, Giantbomb discussed another game that contained racist imagery but did not garner a lot of press outrage (Davis). The game MadWorld, the game that features a man who brutally murders people on a fake television show with spikes, chainsaws, and bizarre deathtraps, features an African American character dressed as a pimp with big red lips (MadWorld). On the podcast (Davis):

Jeff Gertsman: “So how about the one Black character I’ve

encountered in the game called the Black Baron that comes out in his

big pimp costume with his fur coat and all this

stuff and says: ‘Yeah,

motherfucker!’ and introduces all of these death things... ‘Yeah,  motherfucker, you need to be throwing them into turbines!’ and... What?!”

Ryan Davis: “And the character literally looks like he’s wearing black face?”

Jeff Gertsman: “Yeah, totally. It’s messed up”

Ryan Davis: “And at the end of every one he gets murder”

Jeff Gertsman: “Yeah-”

Vinny Caravella: “By a ho?”

Jeff Gertsman: “Yes, by one of his ho’s who comes out and kills him... and  she has spikes coming out of her boobs.”

Several possibilities exist to explain the difference in coverage to both Resident Evil 5 and MadWorld regarding their perceived racism. The first, and perhaps biggest, explanation is that Resident Evil 5 was produced by Japanese developer Capcom, a company that has a 20 year history with making video games while Clover, the company that made MadWorld, is only a few years old with no major commercial breakthroughs (Resident, MadWorld). Moreover, Resident Evil 5 was the successor to the incredibly popular and critically lauded Resident Evil 4 (Resident). Lastly, in their first weeks of sale, Resident Evil 5 sold 1.5 million copies while MadWorld sold only 66,000 copies (STAFF).

Another brief example worth mentioning is the Playstation 3 title Heavy Rain developed by Quantic Dream. While the game is not developed by a Japanese studio (Quantic Dream is located in France), the game was praised by many for being an important entry in the video game medium for having a strong story, developed characters, and film-like similarities. Yet, stereotypes abound within its digital world. The only Latino characters, named Paco, is a sleazy drug dealer who forces a woman to strip naked at gunpoint (Heavy). There are also charges of sexism in the game regarding its nudity of its female protagonist and lingering camera shots on her naked body, compared to brief moments of male nudity in long camera shots (Heavy). More pointed is the only African American character named Mad Jack (Heavy). Mad Jack is a felon out on parole who is working in a junkyard as an automobile mechanic (Heavy). When an FBI investigator visits Mad Jack about his possible connection with a serial killer, Mad Jack attacks the FBI investigator and, depending on the actions of the player, violently kills the FBI agent in a car compactor (Heavy). Mad Jack is dressed in a soiled tank top with a shaved head and a pronounced mouth (Heavy).

American developers are not exempt from stereotypes as well. In the popular Gears of War series, a member of an military assault team is called Cole, nicknamed “Cole Train” (Gears). He is a thick-necked angry militant who’s vocabulary, when not in slang, is primarily limited to “shit” and “damn” (Gears). Before becoming a soldier, “Cole Train” was a defensive lineman (Gears).

Final Reflections

As of this writing, a court case is being reviewed in the Supreme Court of the United States regarding the violence and censorship of video games. In the 1990s, prominent U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman and Hilary Clinton displayed a gross lack of understanding of video games while decrying their content as offensive. Video game Senate hearings were held to discuss the violence in Mortal Kombat. The inclusion of a hidden sex game within Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that could only be experienced by tampering with the game and hacking its code caused a class action suit and the game’s brief recall. Like comic and graphic novel bannings of the 1940s and 1950s, those that love video games feel that their art form is always under constant attack by an older generation that does not understand new technology. There is a desire for video games to be accepted as works of art on par with film. Yet, even the liberal and influential film critic Roger Ebert does not believe video games are art nor will ever be art (Ebert).

The reaction by the video game press and especially its users is understandable if their mindset of video games being constantly attacked is true. To them, the remarks of Croal regarding the racist imagery in Resident Evil 5 was just another assault on their beloved medium. One could view their knee-jerk response as a defensive mechanism to protect video games from further persecution. However, this would still not excuse racism in video games. The history of White authority figures shooting poor Blacks is not a history that becomes irrelevant simply because the poor Blacks are zombies. The racism of having a black-face pimp is not excused as a result of it being in the middle of an already outrageous game. Lastly, the history of racism, its stereotypes of Africans as primitive and their religion as simplistic, is intrinsic to the culture of those that make video games since their knowledge comes from film and television, which eventually got exported to Japan and influenced their culture, which returned to America in the late 1980s with the rebirth of video games. The United States exported racial stereotypes to Japan, which still exist today. Video games are just another arm of ingrained prejudice that deserves and necessitates examination.